 Salmon, sturgeon being killed by pumping, says new report  Chips away at our ability to provide a reliable water supply for California

The National Marine Fisheries Service has ruled that the operation of both the federal and state water projects in California are contributing to the possible extinction of salmon, sturgeon, southern resident killer whale, and steelhead.

In a briefing for Congressional offices held earlier Thursday, NMFS announced exports from the Delta would be reduced 330,000 acre feet.

The state has an even grimmer view.

The new opinion, which could reduce Delta export on average by about 300,000 to 500,000 acre feet, further chips away at our ability to provide a reliable water supply for California, says Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources.

The National Marine Fisheries Service calculates that its biological opinion will reduce by 5 percent to 7 percent combined the amount of water state and federal projects will be able to deliver from the Delta to the San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Southern California.

DWRs initial estimates show the average year impacts closer to 10 percent. That is in addition to current pumping restrictions imposed by biological opinions to protect the Delta smelt and other species.

The federal National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) will today announce changes the agency will require in the operations of the state and federal Central Valley Water Projects to protect the salmon listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ASA). Representatives of commercial and recreational salmon fishing groups are hopeful for better management of the water projects so that the Central Valley fall, spring and winter run Chinook runs can be restored.

San Francisco, CA — The federal National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) today announces changes the agency will require in the operations of the state and federal Central Valley Water Projects to protect the salmon listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The new rules, primarily governing movement of water through the Sacramento River and Bay-Delta Estuary, are designed to protect both the Spring and Winter Run Chinook Salmon runs as well as other species.

The actions are expected to require changes in the states reservoir operations, changes in river flows and changes in the way delta water is unnaturally redirected to giant pumps that send it hundreds of miles to the south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Members of the salmon fishing industry are hopeful for better results after years of steady declines in the salmon populations and no ocean salmon fishing seasons in 2008 and 2009 due to a lack of fish.

Paul Pierce represents The Coastside Fishing Club and serves on the Pacific Fishery Management Council Salmon Advisory Subpanel. Pierce said, We are hopeful the actions of the National Marine Fishery Service will begin the turnaround of these species which are nearing extinction. The courts demanded a better plan and the agency has responded. With three years of scientific work by NMFS, we now have a better idea how and where the destruction of the salmon is occurring. Based on this science, the agency should direct the changes necessary to see that these fish survive. We support their decisions and we look forward to seeing positive changes.

Dick Pool is a manufacturer of salmon fishing equipment and leads the Water4Fish advocacy program which now has 70,000 supporters who have been asking for changes in the states water management to benefit salmon. Pool echoed Paul Pierces thanks and congratulations to the National Marine Fisheries Service and added, These changes are exactly what we have been looking for. We have been operating on an environmental disaster course for salmon and these actions are the beginning of the turnaround.

Pool added, Fishing is big business in California. There are 4.2 million recreational fishermen in the state generating $4.8 billion in economic impact and supporting 41,000 jobs. Salmon are a big part of this. There are 904 retailers and 327 other businesses that drive their income from the $1 billion salmon industry. These businesses and their leaders join us in supporting the leadership provided by NMFS and the other fishery agencies in mapping some solutions.

Roger Thomas is President of the Golden Gate Fishermens Association. The charter boats of this organization carry 200,000 salmon fishermen a year in their pursuit of catching a salmon. Roger says, There are approximately 500,000 recreational salmon fishermen in California. They are passionate about their sport and are livid about what has happened. I am sure they all join me in congratulating the National Marine Fisheries Service in the bold actions to begin the restoration process.

Roger cautioned, These actions are designed to protect only two of the four salmon runs of the Central Valley. We hope the Fall Run which has been the largest and the backbone of the ocean and river fishery for decades will also benefit from the new rules to be announced today.

Dave Bitts, President of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens Associations, said, This year I can’t fish at all, mainly because water in California follows money, and fishermen don’t have the megabucks available to the San Joaquin grower interests. This isn’t about either fish or farms. It’s about how we use our limited, vastly oversubscribed water resources wisely in order to have both. Continuing to hand out huge volumes of public water dirt cheap is not the answer. If you continue taking so much water that salmon go extinct in the California, what wild creatures will be next?

Most of the problems of the salmon runs have resulted from the over subscription of water from Californias rivers, reservoirs and the delta. These problems have to be solved not only for the environment but for all sectors of the California economy. The vast majority of natural water sources have already been tapped. Climate change will compound the problems.

The fishery groups are strong supporters of the major new sources of water that have been identified but are not being implemented fast enough. These include water conservation, water recycling and groundwater management. We urge the state and federal governments to provide the leadership, incentives and financial resources to significantly speed up these developments.

Mike Hudson, commercial fisherman and executive director of the SalmonAid Foundation, adds Today we will find out if we ever will get our salmon back in any numbers to speak of. We have had all the laws on the books for decades now, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and others. Sometimes its not that the rules are not in place, but the lack of commitment to enforce them. It is not too late to bring our salmon back. Im cautiously optimistic that today is the day that may start meaningful restoration of this fantastic fish. If the fisheries service decides to do the right thing today, I and thousands of my fellow fishermen will applaud them.

An acre foot of water is about 220,000 gallons, about what a family uses in a year. So this is enough water to support 330,000 families for a year. They are intent on emptying out the conservative Central Valley of California.

And don’t think this is limited to just us. Once this takes hold, you are all in danger.

God forbid if more water for fish helps all those liberal sport and commercial fishermen. There is excellent science right now that salt water is moving furthur and furthur up the delta and that the pumps are grinding up forage fish eaten by salmon, sturgeon, stripers etc.
I have not been able to fish for salmon for 2 years in a row now because of dwindling salmon runs up the delta. The San Joaquin river nows run in the opposite direction because the pumps remove the water so fast.
I know a lot of commercial fishermen and party boat operations that have quit and sold their boats because of the problems arising out of lower Sacramento river flows. This is probably the only issue that I agree with the Enviros on and I ally myself with them on this issue.

There is nothing “greener” than desalination. The effect on the ocean is zero, but the effect on land would be immense. It would completely relieve the strain on the Colorado River and the water supplies of No Cal.

The problem is that it takes a lot of energy to do that. Where is the power going to come from??? Lord knows we can’t build anymore Nuke plants...No clean coal...NOTHING! Power has come to from somewhere. These plants can’t run on good intentions. The enviro-tards are complaining that fish will be sucked into the pipes and the dumping of the salt into the water..BLAH-BLAH-BLAH. You can take the salt and sell it for human consumption or to cities with snow problems.

Ridiculous man, unreal. This is an awesome solution but the enviro-tards block it. Did you know that we trained and gave the technology to the Saudis for desaliznation? They are now the world’s leader in that process.

Plus, to build a desalination plant, you’d have to do a huge environmental impact study, which would take years to get done; then you’d have to do another study to cover all the pipeline/aqueduct that would be needed to carry the water over the Coast Range. Oh and the pipeline crosses the San Andreas Fault so there would have to be earthquake considerations too.

One fact that came out during the discussions on the radio was that this project was man made. After the project was completed, the smelt showed up. If they were so endangered, how did they manage to survive to get to the Delta? This reminds me of the classic Government scheme.

Someone has a piece of land and it rains. Some geese land there and a Government employee reclassifies the land as being "wetlands."

21
posted on 06/07/2009 1:22:59 PM PDT
by Enterprise
(When they come for your guns and ammo, give them the ammo first.)

I’m sorry that you don’t eat fish or enjoy fishing with your family. However there are people that depend on fishing and farming for their livlihood. Intensive farming practices depending on more and more water is not the way to resolve the issues. The central valley is a desert and so is the L.A. area, Yet that is where the majority of the Delta water goes. The central valley has been farmed for over a hundred years with no problems up till about 10 years ago, when more and more water was needed. Now the farmers and fisherman are crying. And both groups are primarily conservative. It’s all about entitlement sounds like.

First they came for the Klamath farmers, but I was not a Klamath farmer.....

I was at a workshop on the California Water Plan the other day. None of the objectives had any mention of sufficient water for farms. (There were objectives for fish and the environment.) When I brought it up, they stated that the California Dept of Food and Ag was determining what the food supply needed for California’s population would be for the next 20 years and how much water that would entail. They would take that into consideration.

I told them that I was appalled. California produces much of the NATION’s veggies, fruits and nuts.

I guess people will get their food from Mexico in our state leader’s vision of the future. Got garden?

I'll post the press release shortly. George Miller intends to empty out the Central Valley as he believes we are farming illegally with "public" water.

George Miller is foisting the setup for his globalist buddies in the real estate business to get cheap water for the cities they're going to build. This will work just like BART did in the Bay Area. You can bet that the first farmers to feel the heat will be those with a site for a potential insta-city near a station for the "maglev" (massive subsidy #2). The goal is a Central Valley that has a large population but grows no food, a chain of Sustained Developments, each with a transportation/utility jugular that is effectively a gun to the people's heads. Oh but they'll get lots of "Nature" all around them (aka "no man's land"). It'll be paradise! (cough!) All they need is customers. No problemo.

The key fact is that water is more valuable for development than it is for agriculture. As long as that is true the crooks in the "investment" business are going to tweak things against farming. They're "investing" in farming overseas in "places more appropriate for farming (see "comparative advantage" and "free trade"). So they get the trade agreements they want, push those annoying owners off their land, so that they come running to cities, including here, looking to be the customer base for their housing. That they'll subsidize exactly the same way they are doing now using your tax dollars to feed, clothe, educate, and medicate their brainwashed children up to speed, you know, until things are "fair." They'll make better slaves because they already know the score. Americans are too deluded with relic ideas of "freedom" to be quite as useful.

You really didn't think that Democrats like Pat and Jerry were going to let the "wrong people" make money did you? They got the farmers to pony up the cash for the construction of this massive investment subsidy, by teasing them into salivating at a profit in real estate. They got the farmers to pay for the infrastructure and let them hold the bag until the big boys saw the right time. They had to wait until they were finished building out the desert anyway. The recession plus the idiot voters wishing up a passenger train boondoggle presents exactly such an opportunity.

Smelt, smelt, oh no, the smelt are dying... uh, the farmers are still hanging on... Oh steelhead, salmon, oh the humanity!!! (they're more photogenic anyway.) So it goes. I'll bet whoever wrote that biological opinion will end up running a lab.

Hey, you forgot to ping those FReepers who you know will instantly give you a tinfoil hat as they hope your readers will put on (or keep on) blinders to the facts.

The libs in my extended family, even though they know me to be painfully honest, scream that they only want to hear good things about their President. “I thought liberals have an open mind,” I tell them. Two of them, separately, have said “okay, I’d rather keep my head in the sand.” No $h!+.

Why am I telling you? You have run into the same thing on many levels and from many strangers as well as family I bet.

"Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world."

With Obama's leadership and his worshiping minions entranced and enthralled by his godliness, and the mainstream media under his spell, we are, IMO, bypassing Socialism entirely and careening towards Communism with breathtaking speed.

Central California Congressman George Radanovich was miffed at being criticized for chastising the federal government for protecting the Delta smelt when he also authored controversial legislation to restore salmon to the San Joaquin River.

Radanovich, an eight-term Republican from Mariposa, Calif., said equating the two issues is like comparing crappie to bass.

Radanovich was part of a parade of politicos at a rally on the banks of the San Luis Reservoir in April, where thousands ended a four-day Walk for Water to protest the government throttling back the Delta pumps to save a minnow (Delta smelt) at the cost of jobs.

The farm workers and farmers left the rally disappointed. All they heard was political rhetoric. They expected action, but left frustrated. It boiled over with farmers and this editor pointing out the inconsistency in Radanovichs rally rant that the government was more interested in protecting fish than jobs for people, in contradiction of his support for salmon restoration on the river.

Forget salmon ... I dont give a rip about salmon, Congressman Radanovich told me on the phone when he called to set the record straight.

The grape grower/winery owner says he initially authored the river restoration bill with Sen. Diane Feinstein because the 22 water districts in the Friant Water Users Authority had settled an 18-year legal battle with radical environmentalists to restore salmon in the river.

It was either settle or let a judge decide how much water went to salmon. The judge told the farmers they did not want him to decide because they would likely get little or nothing if he did.

The judge had his hands on the faucet and everyone agreed that was not a reasonable alternative, says Radanovich. When the water districts and environmentalists settled, Radanovich drafted legislation to fund river restoration.

The San Joaquin restoration is not an Endangered Species Act (ESA) situation like the Delta smelt. It is a state issue dating back to the law passed in 1930 creating Friant Dam and Millerton Lake, said Radanovich. The issue was not going beyond state court. There would be no appeal to the supreme court of the judges ruling if he was left to make the final decision.

Basically, Radanovich said farmers cut the best deal they could.

In the wake of the frustration from the water march and rally, Radanovich has ratcheted up his political muscle to resolve the smelt issue. He acknowledged the water march brought the West Side water issue to everyones attention but that was about it. He says it is going to take a major overhaul of the ESA, but believes with Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats running the House, the chances of that are slim to none. But that does not mean we are not going to still try.

Radanovich repeats the obvious when he says two of the best solutions to Californias water crisis are construction of the peripheral canal, which would carry water more efficiently through the Delta, and Temperance Flat Dam above Millerton Lake in Radanovichs district.

It will take a long time to get there with those two projects, says Radanovich. We need water now to save jobs and farms.

Radanovich says there are interim solutions. One is called Two Gates; a project the Central Valley congressman says is shovel-ready. It is a $25 million barrier that would keep smelt safe from the pumps. It has been permitted and once approved for funding, could be completed in as quickly as 90 days.

Radanovich said Two Gates would boost water deliveries to West Side farmers to 45 percent of normal from the current 10 percent. It could save 45,000 jobs in the San Joaquin Valley. He says it has the support of powerful California Congressman George Miller and some environmental groups.

Two Gates was submitted to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for funding under the American Recovery and Re-investment Act. It was not included in the final list of projects. However, Radanovich believes there is an 80 percent chance he can still get it funded.

Radanovich has been an ally to agriculture since his first day in office. He is one of us, yet he was ensnarled in the California water crisis with the backlash from his comments at the water walk rally.

The criticism of the Valley Congressman may not have not been justified. However, it was a symptom that the crisis is growing worse and more infuriating each day.

Few people have as clear and well thought out of an understanding of the big picture on this subject as you.

If only there were good and right minded people in government that would let the natural forces of nature and free markets and our country's founding principles rule with the force of law, rather than pretended altruism and sophistry...

I’m a noob and I stumbled into this thread looking for activism chapters, specifically for the Sacramento area. Since your post is about the Delta water issue, I’m hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction for our area?

Build desalinization plants, build them by the dozens, place them off the coast and pump the water inland, no need to ever fear a drought again if we just use the technology that we have instead of listening to green idiots. When will the people fight back against this sh**?

Actually it is 90,000 galleons a day, but that is good. I advocate, on another comment, building desalinization plants off the coast. There is no reason for this fish or humans BS and there is no reason to pick fish over humans anyway. Our leaders are all stark raving loonies.

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